Topics of the Times; Back to the Past

Published: December 12, 1989

While most of Eastern Europe is coming apart, Albania thrives - according to an upbeat advertisement in The Times the other day. The ad, signed ''American Friends of Albania,'' celebrated the 45th anniversary of the Albanian people's ''Liberation from Nazi-Fascist occupation'' in 1944. It described a land where: ''There are no taxes on the people . . . No inflation . . . No unemployment . . . No cases of AIDS . . . No problem of drug addiction, no beggars or homeless [ and ] no crime in the streets, which are clean and free of garbage.''

The ad pictures a far different place than Marvine Howe of The Times saw last month. Observing that Albania has Europe's lowest standard of living, Ms. Howe likened her visit to a journey back in time, where private cars are banned, rural travel is by oxcart, donkey and rattling Czech trucks, and city folk mostly walk or take decrepit buses.

But while the quality of life may not be so trouble-free as the ''American Friends'' claim, one statement in their ad was intriguing: ''Pollution is prohibited by the Constitution.'' Hard-line capitalists might give it a thought.